Yankees Win Again At Home

ALCS Game 2 - N.Y. Yankees 3, Boston 1

Jon Lieber Delivers Another Strong Start From The Mound For New York.

NEW YORK -- Pedro Martinez was barely 10 feet out of the bullpen, making his way to the Boston Red Sox's dugout, when the announced crowd of 56,136 began the serenade Wednesday night.

"Who's Your Daddy?" they chanted in full throat.

Yankees fans never need much incentive when it comes to taunting the Red Sox, but Martinez provided it with comments late in September that he surely must regret.

After pitching well but coming up on the short end of a decision against the Yankees, an exasperated Martinez said he only could tip his cap and say the Yankees were "my daddy."

Whether the taunting affected Martinez or not, he started the game with a four-pitch walk to Derek Jeter, hit Alex Rodriguez and gave up an RBI single to Gary Sheffield as the Yankees took an early lead en route to a 3-1 victory.

The American League Championship Series now will shift to Fenway Park for Game 3 on Friday, with starter Kevin Brown trying to help New York to a 3-0 series lead against Boston's Bronson Arroyo.

Starting pitching was supposed to be the Yankees' weak spot in the postseason, but one night after Mike Mussina set down the first 19 Boston hitters, Jon Lieber bettered him.

Lieber, making his second career postseason start, was brilliant. He limited the top offensive club in the American League to four runners on a walk and three singles over seven-plus innings. He left to a standing ovation after giving up a leadoff single to Trot Nixon in the eighth.

The Red Sox pride themselves on working pitchers deep into counts to build up their pitch counts, but with Lieber consistently throwing strikes, that strategy failed. Only Johnny Damon's sixth-inning at-bat tested Lieber. Damon saw 16 pitches before flying out to center. To that point, Lieber had thrown only as many as 11 pitches in a full inning.

Martinez and Lieber dueled until the Yankees' sixth when Martinez may have started running out of gas. Still trailing 1-0, he issued a one-out walk to Jorge Posada on his 102nd pitch.

Four pitches later, John Olerud took Martinez into the right-field seats to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.